By Allan Kai & Brian Osweta

Following a story featured on https://www.giliticsmedia.co.ke/, about the plight of persons living with HIV in Mombasa and the challenges they go through during the Covid-19 pandemic, a well wisher has come to their assistance to offer food and other donations.

The good Samaritan who preferred to remain nameless, took it upon themselves to listen to the individual needs of the Ahadi Women’s Group, and brought donations of food and poultry feed to some of the PLWH.

Among those who benefited was Mary Waceke, who highlighted the challenges of living with HOIV during this pandemic when she poke to our Brian Osweta earlier this week.

She thanked the Gilitics media team for highlighting their plight and impacting the little change she ha seen.

“I am happy this morning. I thank the young men from Gilitics Media who visited me and my fellow women to highlight the hardships we go through, and this morning they have brought me some poultry feed from a well wisher which will go a long way to help me get my chicken ready to take to the market.” Waceke said.

Naomi Mwangada who is among the PLWH also received some food donations which she thanked the team for making possible.

“I thank these young men from Gilitics Media who have shared our plight and have made it possible for well wishers to come to our assistance during these tough times.” said Mwangada.

PLWH have had a hard time coping with life especially during the Coronavirus pandemic, with many forced to skip taking their ARV medication due to the lack of food, putting them at high risk of reducing their immunity to fight the HIV and Covid-19, should they contract the virus.

Dr. Julius Musyimi who runs a HIV care clinic in Mombasa, has advised against skipping taking the drugs as the HIV virus takes advantage of this and starts to make copies of itself again.

“When you miss a pill, you drop the drugs bio availability in the system, meaning that If it was at 60% it will drop down to 40% and why do we need a peak level?  It’s because the medicine fights the virus when it’s already in the body so when you lower the plasma levels of the medicine, then the virus gets to attack the body more as there is no sufficient defence. There are more chances of the virus mutating.” Said Dr. Musyimi.

According to the Mombasa County AIDS Strategic plan 2016-2020, the county has a HIV prevalence of 7.4%, with 54,600 persons living with HIV.

The plan also reports that HIV treatment coverage for adults in Mombasa stands at 60% while Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) coverage is at 78%.